


Lightning Sand

by impossiblepluto



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 03:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14991389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblepluto/pseuds/impossiblepluto
Summary: Missing scene s1e16: Hook. How did they get out of the quicksand? Mangled quotes from The Princess Bride also found here.





	Lightning Sand

"It's not that bad."

"Jack." 

"I'm not saying I want to build a summer house here, but the trees are quite lovely." 

"Jack." 

"Well, one thing I will say, the fire swamp certainly does keep you on your toes."

"Jack," Mac's voice tinged with frustration. "Your accent is terrible, and you've been quoting The Princess Bride for fifteen minutes. Stop."

Jack gave his shoulders a half-shrug above the quick sand, "As you wish." He paused. "What is it, when it ain't exactly water, and it ain't exactly earth?"

Mac huffed out a frustrated sigh. "Jack, I didn't mean just switch movies," he said in a warning tone. "Can you move at all?"

"In case you haven't noticed hoss, I'm as stuck as you are in this quicksand. With no Wesley to jump in with a vine and save the day. Or no Henry Jones the Third with a snake to use as a rope." Jack took a deep breath and started yelling for help again.

"Hold on," Mac said, flinching away from a determined fly that continued to try biting his face. "There's no one around to hear us. We're going to have to think of a plan to get out."

"Well, I thought I was following the plan you came up with," Jack retorted.

Their mission was grueling but a success. Followed by a two day hike through the jungle to their ex fil. They were exhausted, pushing ahead on fumes. To get trapped in quicksand two miles from the helicopter that would take them home was cruel and inhumane. After falling in they managed to shed their packs to keep from being pulled completely under. As it was they were both nearly shoulder deep. The late afternoon sun was blazing. Mac felt his face turning hot it beat down, it warmed the top layers of quicksand. But around waist deep it was cold and getting colder the deeper it went. After their hike through the humid rain forest, the cool temperatures felt nice, but it wouldn't be long before the cold became their enemy.

"We're more buoyant than the quicksand," Mac mused aloud. "If you can make it onto your back you should be able to float. Jack, try to move just one foot up a few inches. The sand and clay should fill in underneath and help you reach the surface. Take some deep breaths. Filling your lungs with oxygen will help increase your buoyancy."

Jack filled his lungs slowly several times. He shifted his weight back and could feel the muck start to release from its grip around him. He moved only a few inches. "I'm not getting very far."

"It's going to be a slow process. You'll probably only move inches at a time and will have to wait for the sand to settle every time you move. It could take hours for you to get out."

"Why aren't you moving?" Jack asked, glaring at him.

"We're going to have more success if only one of us tries to get out at a time. That way we aren't working against each other, our movements won't sabotage the other's efforts."

"Fine," Jack said agreeing with Mac's logic. "Then get going, boy."

Mac shook his head, "You're closer to the edge already, and you aren't in as deep so you don't have as far to go to get out. Besides, you're more likely to be able to pull me out."

"And what happens if you keep sinking?" Jack growled, not liking the idea of Mac spending more time halfway buried.

"It's unlikely that I'll sink any further. The fact that we're this deep is a fluke, most people don't sink deeper than their waists."

"Yeah, well, you just said we're already deeper than most people. Who knows if this puddle has read a quicksand manual?"

"Jack, instead of arguing just focus on getting out of here, then you can help me."

Jack glared at Mac as he concentrated on moving his right foot. He could feel it slip up, maybe an inch, and held it there as the sand filled in underneath. It was an agonizingly slow process. Move an inch and wait. Take some deep breaths. Try to lean back, try to float.

Initially, Mac kept up the encouragement while Jack kept up a steady stream of movie references featuring quicksand. Mostly older movies; mostly movies Mac hadn't seen and Jack promised to rectify that when they were home. But as hours passed the conversation dwindled.

Jack was nearly free, more than halfway onto solid ground when he turned at looked at his friend. "You're gonna have a nice sunburn when we get out of here." 

"Hmm," Mac grunted.

"Mac, you okay?"

"I'm fine," he said with a shiver. His eyes were closed.

"Mac!" Jack called out with concern.

"What, Jack?" Mac replied irritated.

"You're shivering." Jack knew that he'd been more out of the quicksand than in for a while, but he hadn't thought it was that cold.

"Quicksand doesn't spontaneously appear. It needs a water source. We're nowhere near a river so there must be an underground spring that's creating the pit. I think it's coming up right underneath me. My legs are a little numb, but I don't know if it's from the cold or the pressure."

"Damn it, Mac. I told you we should get you out first."

"Can we not do the whole mother-hen thing for once?"

"I do not mother-hen," Jack was winding up for a full blown rant.

"Just," Mac raised his voice, then calmed. "Just focus on getting the rest of the way out"

The sun was dipping. While the hour wasn't late, the sun would disappear behind the mountains soon and leave them in the dark. And though this was the jungle the temperature would still drop as the sun did. Their wet clothes wouldn’t do them any favors. And Mac was already shivering. 

 

* * *

 

Mac stumbled again, and Jack caught him by the back of his shirt. He could feel Mac trembling. The sun long gone, the night air turning cool. The roots and branches marred their path and Mac's legs still numb. The jungle wildlife making its presence known with a variety of growls and screeches.

"I hope those aren't ROUSes."

"Hey man, no fair, you said no more Princess Bride quotes."

Mac didn't reply as an exceptionally violent shiver ran through him. Jack pressed a hand to Mac's neck, his pulse weak and racing. Mac's face was warm from sunburn but his body felt chilled beneath Jack's hands. 

"Mac," Jack called his name worried. Mac was deteriorating quickly. "We gotta keep going. We're almost there."

"Are we getting out of the fire swamp?"

"Yeah, sure are bud" Jack replied. "Ex fil's just over this ridge."

"Ex fil? But we're supposed to be off rotation?"

Jack threw Mac's arm around his shoulder and gripped Mac's belt, helping him stay upright enough to stagger through the jungle. They were so close, and Mac needed help. They were both already exhausted and dehydrated long before they fell into the quicksand. And now after the hours spent freeing themselves Mac was hypothermic, his pulse raced and his confusion making it even more difficult to keep his feet under him. He needed to get Mac out of his wet clothes and warmed up, and the only way to do that was to make it to their exfil.

Jack thought at first his eyes were playing tricks on him as they crested the ridge, but there, down below was the helicopter, right at the coordinates they were supposed to be. "We made it bud, we're going home."

 

* * *

 

Once settled in the helicopter Jack started removing Mac's wet clothes. Mac tried to push Jack's hands away, pulling back from Jack's touch.

"Hold it, kid, those wet clothes have to come off. I need to get you warmed up."

Mac glared up at Jack as Jack continued. "Yeah, you can be mad all you want later." If Jack thought Mac was stubborn when he was fully coherent, a mildly confused, hypothermic Mac was like trying to wrestle an octopus, arm and legs flailing. Finally he had Mac wrapped in the blanket from the emergency kit and was trying to get the kid to drink something.

"Come on, drink it. You're dehydrated." Jack lifted the canteen to Mac's mouth. Mac pushed it away. "Drink it."

"No." Mac turned his head.

Jack grabbed Mac's chin forcing Mac to look him in the eye. "You need to drink something, Angus." His voice quiet and serious.

"Not thirsty," Mac said stubbornly.

"I'll knock you on your ass and pour it down your throat."

Mac glared at Jack again, but something in Jack's tone must have pierced through Mac's disorientation because he reached for the canteen and took a long sip. Encouraged, Jack made him take several more pulls from the canteen. He hauled Mac up to sit in front of him, Mac's back resting against Jack's chest. Jack wrapped his arms around the kids to try to help warm him up. Mac was still shivering when they landed.

The pilot had radioed ahead and the medical team was standing by. Mac was pulled onto a gurney, and was disoriented just enough to let them. Jack insisted on walking, following right behind Mac all the way into an exam room, ignoring the nurse who tried to stop him and pull him into his own room.

Mac started up his impersonation of an octopus again as medical personnel started to clean him up and examine him. Jack maneuvered his way to the head of the bed, and snagged Mac's hand, quieting him enough that the doctor could finish his exam. Apparently, they decided arguing with Jack wasn't worth the effort and his presence calmed their patient enough to do their job. A nurse pulled a chair up to the bedside for Jack. Another physician looked Jack over as Jack held Mac's hand.

 

* * *

 

 Mac was cozy. He felt warm and safe and slightly sluggish. With that realization he pried his eyes open. He looked down and saw an IV in his left arm and could feel the warm liquid filling his veins. He started to panic. They were drugging him! He started moving his right to reached over to pull the IV out. Something pulled on his finger, before giving way, had they tried tying him down?

"Leave it!" The sharp command stopped him.

"Jack, they're giving me something," Mac started breathing faster. He could hear a faint beeping sound, an alarm, did they know he was trying to escape?

"Yeah, they're giving you warm saline, gotta get your body temperature up and rehydrate you." Jack moved into his line of sight.

"No, I'm fuzzy. I can't think," Mac protested, pushing up in the bed.

Jack reached over and fixed the pulse ox back onto Mac's finger, and beeping in the background slowed. "Take some deep breaths in through your nose," Jack coached, and brushed Mac's bangs from his forehead. "We just got back from Uruguay. Finished up the mission by taking a mud bath in quicksand, which I do not recommend. Cross that one off the bucket list. I never want to do that again. You were hypothermic and dehydrated. They aren't giving you anything except warmed up saline with some electrolytes. The doc said you might be a little slow on the uptake because your core temperature was so low. Like scary low Mac," Jack's face was serious. "Don't ever do that again okay?"

"Okay," Mac agreed looking around the room and seeing that Jack was right. They were in the Phoenix medical center, it was unfortunately a very familiar surrounding. Jack was hooked up to his own bag of IV fluids, sitting in a chair at his bedside. "What's that?" Mac asked concerned, gesturing to the pump.

"I might have bought myself a liter of IV fluid too," Jack said with a shrug, playing with the tape securing the port in place. "Don't look at me like that. I'm fine. They're just topping me off. Once this bag is done I get my IV out," Jack gloated.

Mac could the faint flow of oxygen from a nasal cannula and reached up for it.

"Hey! What did I say? Leave it." Jack said, pulling Mac's hands from the tubing.

"You said to leave the IV."

"Here's an idea, you don't touch any of the tubes or wires they got sticking out of you."

Mac frowned. "What's the oxygen for?"

"Doc said you were a little hypoxic," Jack grinned as Mac's eyes widened slightly. "Yeah, didn't think I'd know that word did ya?"

"Have you been sitting there practicing it until I woke up?"

Jack shrugged. "Maybe." He adjusted the warm blankets back around Mac's shoulders. "The oxygen is mostly for comfort, but they got that pulse ox on your finger and it beeps when you take it off, so just leave it." Jack leaned back in his own chair and they sat for a while in companionable quiet. "You know what I am going to enjoy though? Getting to be you when we watch a movie with quicksand;" Jack pulled out his best Mac impression. "'You know, scientifically speaking, that's not how quicksand works.'" 

"That doesn't even sound like me." 

"Well I beg to differ, I think that sounded exactly like you." Jack said, continuing with his Mac impression and mangling scientific terminology. "But we're experts now, we survived the fire swamp."

"Actually, we survived the lightning sand, that was only one of the three terrors of the fire swamp."

"Man, you can't ever just let me have the win?" 


End file.
